As a display panel used as part of a display apparatus, such as a digital television, there is a known organic electro luminescence (EL) display panel having a plurality of pixels arranged in a matrix. In an organic EL display panel for color display, for example, three organic EL elements corresponding to colors RGB form three sub-pixels, and the combination of the three sub-pixels forms one pixel.
Each of the organic EL elements includes an anode section, a cathode section, and a light emitting section containing an organic material and provided between the anode section and the cathode section. The organic EL elements each emit light when voltage is applied to the anode section and the cathode section to inject holes and electrons into the light emitting section and the injected holes and electrons recombine with each other.
An organic EL display panel having a top-emission structure has a structure in which an anode electrode layer, an organic layer, and a cathode electrode layer are sequentially layered on a substrate. The anode section that forms each of the organic EL elements is formed of part of the anode electrode layer, the cathode section that forms the organic EL element is formed of part of the cathode electrode layer, and the light emitting section that forms the organic EL element is formed of part of the organic layer.
For example, in an organic EL display panel in which the cathode electrode layer is formed across the surface of the substrate and the plurality of pixels share the cathode electrode layer, insufficient power is supplied to a pixel located far away from a power supply, reducing the amount of light emitted from the pixel, resulting in poor image quality, such as luminance unevenness, in some cases. To supply a pixel located far away from the power supply with sufficient power, it is conceivable to employ a cathode electrode layer having low resistance. As an example of the cathode electrode layer having low resistance, Patent Literature 1 discloses a technology for connecting an auxiliary electrode to a cathode electrode layer to lower the resistance of the cathode electrode layer.